Render Settings: Something must be wrong here, please advise

Im starting to play with AE and Premiere CS5.5 and my Canon Vixia FH-200, so to make it better I got a green backdrop and now Im rendering one of my first projects: A presentation in a virtual set. Everything looks good, I've learned some tricks about AE and Keylight. So what's wrong so far? My movie is only 2:29 (2 mins, 29 seconds), I chose Quicktime for output, Photo JPEG compression and the Render Cue shows an "Estimated File Size" of 4.9 GB!!! How come such a short movie can become so heavy???? I won't be able to burn a DVD with it. Please let me know what tipe of output should I specify for a good quality HD movie.

You could try ProRes or H.264 but the file will probably still be large if it is a 2 minute HD file. Are you making a playable DVD or a data disc. If you are making a playable DVD then your DVD software will compress the file (probably into an MPEG2) which will fit on a DVD. If you are trying to make a data disc you can split the motion JPEG files onto 2 separate discs if the other formats are still too large. Hope this helps.

AE's default lossless output module generates an intermediate file that is designed for additional post-production use, not direct playback. These files are generally huge, with very high data rates, and very few computers can play them back in real time without stuttering. For more, see this Adobe FAQ [link]: Why is my output file huge, and why doesn't it play back smoothly in a media player?

To help you choose a more suitable format for your needs, see the related Adobe FAQ [link]: What is the best format for rendering and exporting from After Effects?

In your specific case, you will ultimately need to encode an MPEG-2 video for authoring your DVD.